Vartha Bharati's Pushparaj B.N., Ibrahim Adkasthala selected for Press Club Annual Honour 2022
Mangaluru Press Club day, Award ceremony on March 5
Mangaluru: Pushparaj B.N., Mangaluru Bureau Chief of Vartha Bharati and Senior Correspondent Ibrahim Adkasthala are among the 10 senior journalists who will receive the Mangaluru Press Club Annual Honour for the year 2022.
The award ceremony will be held on March 5 at Kudla Kudru Paradise Island in Boloor, the program will begin at 10 am.
K. Sadashiva Shenoy, president of the Karnataka Madhyama Academy, will inaugurate the award ceremony and Annu Mangaluru, president of the Mangaluru Press Club, will preside over the event. Senior journalist K. Anand Shetty and general secretary of the Press Club Mohammad Arif Padubidri will be the chief guests for the ceremony.
Senior journalists Jinnappa Gowda, I. B. Sandeep Kumar, Vinoba K. T., Prakash Ilanthila, Pushparaj B. N., Stanley Pinto, Ramakrishna Bhat, Ramakrishna R., Ibrahim Adkasthala and B. Ravindra Shetty will be felicitated with the ‘Mangaluru Press Club Annual Honour 2022’.
Raviraj H. G., senior assistant director of the Department of Information and Public Relations, will honour the children of journalists with the talent awards. Cardiologist Dr. Padmanabha Kamath will hand the new ECG equipment to the journalists’ association.
Rajani Shetty, who is feeding and supporting stray animals in Beedadi, will be honoured with the Press Club Award by film actor and Big Boss show winner Roopesh Shetty.
Srinivasa Nayak, president of the Dakshina Kannada District Working Journalists’ Association; P. B. Harish Rai, member of the Indian Working Journalists’ Association; and Jagannath Shetty Bala, member of the Karnataka Madhyama Academy, will attend the program.
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Karnataka procured 16 lakh expired RT-PCR kits during Covid wave: D’Cunha commission
Bengaluru: Justice John Michael D’Cunha’s committee has uncovered significant irregularities in the procurement of medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic, revealing that more than 16 lakh RT-PCR test kits purchased by Karnataka in 2022 under the BJP-led government were either expired or close to their expiry dates.
After irregularities in PPE kit purchases, ventilators have also come under the scanner, with the report highlighting discrepancies amounting to Rs 173.26 crore in purchases made by the Medical Education Department.
The commission has also found that the Karnataka State Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd. (KSMSCL) that cancelled a supply order for one lakh Rapid Antigen (RAT) kits placed with a Singapore-based company in March 2020 — for delay in supplying — has not recovered the Rs 6.99 crore paid to the company towards the order, as reported by The Hindu on Thursday.
According to the 279-page report on procurements made by the KSMSCL that is compiled in part IV of the report, a payment of Rs 148.84 crore was made by KSMSCL to various suppliers and firms towards procurement of RT-PCR kits from 2020 to 2022.
The Commission’s report, as cited by the publication, stated that there were records indicating procurement of RT-PCR kits, RNA extraction kits and Viral transport media (VTM) of a total value of Rs 106.25 crore during the pandemic in Karnataka. However, according to the report, this procurement was made without administrative approval.
“Since the KSMSCL has failed to discharge its obligation and responsibility, the loss caused to the State exchequer to this extent is required to be replenished by the erring officers and/or officials of the KSMSCL as well as the officers and/or officials of the consignee designated laboratories who received the consignment,” the report said, pegging the losses due to expired kits supplied by companies at Rs 3.11 crore.
In response to the report’s findings, state Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao criticised the saffron party for profiting from the pandemic. He promised accountability for the irregularities involving PPE kits and ventilators, stating that those responsible would face punishment.
